By Drake Skleba
For the Bugle
Plainfield South right-fielder Tony Mosher stepped into the batter’s box in the top of the seventh inning of a 3-3 battle with Oswego in the wild, wild, Southwest Prairie Conference championship race.
Entering Thursday’s action, Plainfield South and Plainfield North were dead-locked atop the SPC with identical 12-4 marks.
During the game, the Cougars learned that Plainfield East had beaten Plainfield North, 5-2, so with a win against Oswego, the Cougars, would clinch at least a share of the 2019 SPC championship.
With Tylor “Puma” Phommachanhom on first with one out, having reached for the third time, on an Oswego miscue, the hard-hitting Mosher dug in.
Diaster struck for the Cougars as Oswego left hander Avery Delphey picked Phommachanhom off first base for the second out of the inning.
“Puma’s getting picked off, was totally my fault,” admitted Plainfield South head coach Phil Bodine.
Mosher then hit Delphey’s next pitch over the left field fence for a 4-3 Cougar lead.
“In my previous at bat against Delphey he gave me a change up, that I pulled for the double in the fifth,” Mosher said. “He gave me the exact same pitch in the seventh and I hit it out of here. It was awesome. I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it.”
Phommachanhom (4-0), who relieved Cougar starting pitcher, Justin McGuigan (5.1 IP, 3R, 7H, 1ER, in the sixth inning slammed the door on the hard-hitting 3-4-5 hitters in the Oswego (17-13, 10-8) lineup.
Puma, the Cougars’ super-sophomore, wrapped up the SPC Championship-share, clinching victory 4-3.
Plainfield South (25-6, 13-4) jumped out in front 2-0 with a pair of unearned runs without the benefit of a hit in the top of the first inning.
The charitable Cougars gave the host Panthers back the two unearned runs in the bottom of the third for a 2-2 tie.
In the top of the fourth, after striking out the first two Cougar hitters, Oswego’s ace-starting pitcher Codey Querin (3.2 IP, 2R, 0H, 0ER, 4K, 6BB), walked the bases loaded.
Panther head coach Joe Gerante removed Querin and replaced him with Delphey. Querin, did not give up a hit in his 3.2 innings of work on the mound. Delphey, would retire Cougar second baseman, Connor Blake, on a pop-up to short, to get out of the inning.
in the fifth, Phommachanhom would double but get thrown out at the plate. when Mosher followed with a double to left. It was that kind of game for the Coug’s.
In the sixth, the red-hot, Cougar DH Alex Lekovish, singled to leadoff the inning. Cougar sophomore, Jeremy “Little Bro” McGuigan, would pinch-run for Lekovish. McGuigan would steal second base and score on “Big Bro” Justin’s, clutch RBI single, for a 3-2 Cougar lead.
“No doubt about it,” Justin McGuigan said. “I really had an extra-incentive, to drive home Jeremy, with the lead run.”
Phommachanhom (WP 1.2 IP, 0R, 1H, OER, 2K, 0 BB), relieved Justin McGuigan with a Panther runner on first and one out in the bottom of the sixth. Phommachanhom gave up a two-out, game-tying hit to Panther leadoff man Cal Hejza (3-for-4, RBI) for a blown save, tying the game at 3-3.
Mosher’s blast gave the Cougars a 4-3 lead and gave “Puma” a chance for his third win on the mound in a little over a week.
Facing arguably the toughest 3-4-5 hitters in the SPC, the sophomore showed his stuff dispatching DJ Miller ( 2-for-4, 2B) and Panther cleanup hitter Garry Menard on strikeouts.
With the hard-hitting Jason Crafton (1-for-3, 2B,BB) stepping into the batters box with two outs, Bodine made a mad dash for the mound to talk with his pitcher.
Crafton hit a shot at junior third baseman Zach Pawlak, who gloved the smash and fired across the diamond to his big brother, Ryan Pawlak, and the Cougars clinched at least a share of the SPC.
“As I said last night, I always watch and know in my mind, what I am to do, whether playing left field, shortstop or pitching,” Phommachanhom said. “I remembered where the opposing 3-4-5 hitters had hit the ball in this game and from that I knew how to get them out. As always, one game at a time. We want the SPC title all to ourselves.”
“I pounded the strike zone today and kept my pitch count down,” Justin McGuigan said. “I did my job today on the mound. We are playing great team baseball now. Everybody is contributing and we want to keep on rolling. We do not want to share the SPC title with anyone. We are going to North to win the outright SPC championship.”
North and South were scheduled to play Friday, but will face off Saturday at 11 a.m. because of weather.
“We only clinched a share of the SPC tonight,” Bodine added. “If we would have wrapped things up tonight, we would have been a lot more excited. I told the kids to stay focused and finish the job.
“Justin pitched well and Puma was outstanding against Oswego’s tough 3-4-5 hitters in the bottom of the seventh. It’s all about finding ways to win baseball games now. They get it. All coaching and preparation is done. We have to find way to get runs. Pick each other up when we are down. Just find a way to win ball games.”
A game earlier on senior day at South, the Cougars honored the 13 senior members of the Class of 2019. With family and friends in attendance, a quality pregame ceremony took place on the field with the Cougar seniors and their parents.
Justin McGuigan, Griffin Lapp, Connor Blake, Tony Mosher, Alex Lekovish, Ryan Pawlak, Austin Richardson, Dylan Miller, Antonio Carra, Carson Harvey, Ben Kouba, Garrick Stone and Mike Mayerhofer, were all honored.
After Brady Shelton got out of a jam in the top of the fifth, the Cougars erupted for three runs in the bottom of the fifth and go on to the 5-3 victory setting up the SPC tying contest.
SOUTHWEST PRAIRIE
Through games of MAY 16
Plainfield South 25-6 13-4
Plainfield North 16-10 12-5
Plainfield Central 23-9 11-6
Plainfield East 20-11 10-8
Oswego 17-13 10-8
Oswego East 17-12 9-9
Joliet West 18-16 8-9
Romeoville 10-20 6-11
Minooka 11-18 6-12